Time After Time
by Whitelight72
Summary: Alternate reaction to Time After Time. Derek is irrationally mad at Meredith when the Chief tells him he can't have the position because of Meredith. So he takes it out on her. Can Meredith handle things when Derek's acting horrible to her?
1. Chapter 1

**Time After Time**

_**-x-  
**_

_**If your lost and you look  
Then you will find me  
Time after time  
If you fall, I will catch you  
I'll be waiting  
Time after Time**_

_**-x-**_

_**

* * *

**_

**A/N: Wrote this after seeing Time After Time. Slight spoilers, but mainly a different take on the aftermath. And I realize Lexie wasn't actually brought in before Susan died, but for the sake of my story, she did. The song First Time is by Lifehouse.

* * *

**

**Chapter 1  
First Time**

-x-

_We're both looking for something  
We've been afraid to find  
It's easier to be broken  
It's easier to hide_

_Looking at you  
Holding my breath  
For once in my life  
I'm scared to death  
Of taking a chance  
Letting you inside_

_-x-  
_

"_I told Ellis. I told her I would protect her daughter."_

Meredith. Everything in his life always came down to Meredith lately. Didn't people understand that just because they were in a relationship, he still lived his own life? He was furious with the chief. The chief had no right to refuse him the position just because he was worried about Meredith. Derek could make it work. Everything that had gone wrong in their relationship was not his fault. He needed to stay away from her. Not permanently, just for the rest of the day. He needed to not be around her right now.

He wrote a quick note telling her that he was going to sleep at the trailer that night, but as he slipped into the intern locker room, he was unsuccessful at being sneaky. He entered just as Meredith pulled her scrub top off and threw it in her locker. He quickly left the room, forgetting about the note. He'd just go straight to the trailer tonight. As he pulled the door shut behind him, he bumped into Alex Karev.

"Hey man, you looking for Grey?" Alex asked as he moved past him and made to enter the locker room.

"Um, no," Derek mumbled. "No, no, just leaving. See ya tomorrow, Karev." And Derek left before Alex could even get the door to the locker room open, where he would see Meredith Grey packing up her things to leave.

.xoxo.

When he woke up the next morning, it wasn't morning. It actually looked like evening, and he had an extremely painful hangover, and a blinking cell phone. 7 messages.

"Message One: _Hey Derek, it's Meredith. I bumped into Alex on my way out and he said he saw you outside the locker room. Why didn't you just wait for me? We could've left together. Oh well, I'm at Joe's right now, but I'm not real sure where you are. I'll be here for a while, so stop by when you finish at the hospital, since I assume you're still there. Love you. Bye._"

"Message Two: _So it's midnight, I kind of thought you'd be here by now. I guess you got too caught up at work. It's fine, trust me, I understand. Just give me a call if you get the chance. Or come home, okay. It's late and you're on call tomorrow. You need sleep, Der. Love you."_

"Message Three: _Okay, seriously Derek Shepherd, this is just ridiculous. There's no way you've been in surgery for the last ten hours. You had nothing on the board last night, and there were no emergencies because Izzie was on call last night and I asked her if anything happened. She said she hadn't seen you, so where were you? What the hell, Derek? Are you mad or something? Call me. Talk to me. I love you."_

"Message Four: _Derek, it's Richard. I've called you three times already this morning, so I'm assuming you're not coming in today. I put Meyer on your cases for the day, and postponed the ones that he can't do. Seriously, Shep, you're my Head of Neuro, you can't just disappear on me like this. Call me later and let me know what's going on."_

By Meredith's fourth message, she wasn't very happy. In fact, she sounded downright pissed.

"Message Five: _Okay, so this is my last message, because this is just getting pathetic. What the fuck, Derek? It's now… noon; almost noon. The chief had to reassign two of your surgeries. But hey, I scrubbed in with your fellow, Meyer, I think his name is. He's real smart. I'll bet he calls his girlfriend when he decides to suddenly disappear. What the hell is going on, Derek?" _No 'I love you' at the end this time.

"Message Six: _Okay, so I know I said the previous was my last, but this one really is my last, I promise. You have to tell me what's wrong, Derek. You have to tell me what I did so I can fix it. I've been thinking about it all day, going over everything I've done in the past week or so, and I can't think of anything I've done that would upset your or make you mad at me, so you've got to tell me what's going on. Please Derek, I love you. Talk to me, please… Um, well, I'm on call all night tonight, so I won't be home… But I'll answer my phone if you call, so please, call. I love you, Derek."_

"Message Seven: _So guess what I found today, wonderful ex-husband of mine. See, Meredith Grey was assigned to my service today, and she didn't show up when she was supposed to. So I go around asking the other interns where she is, and none of them know either. Do you want to know where I found her Derek? On the roof. In the rain, by the way. Yep, storming, pouring down rain, and she's sitting on top of our roof next to a very tall, very metal pole, while she watches lightning strike all over town. And see, at first, I don't realize she's crying because of the rain. But then I pull her inside, drag her into the intern locker room and throw her under a hot stream of water, she's practically hyperventilating. And in between her sobs, she's saying she screwed things up with Derek again. You want to tell me what the hell is going on, Derek Christopher?! Call me as soon as you get this."_

And instead of doing the responsible, Derek-like thing, he did the stupid, alcoholic-like thing. He took a shower, got dressed, and went straight to Joe's. Meredith was on call tonight anyway, so he wouldn't have to deal with her.

.xoxo.

"Dr. Grey, you're done for the night," Addison announced as she entered the deserted gallery. Meredith was sitting on a chair in the corner, her knees almost touching her chest, scribbling on charts and glancing up at the surgery in the OR occasionally. It was a routine craniotomy, so no interns were interested in seeing a noncomplex procedure. But it was neuro, so Meredith wanted to observe as much as she could while charting.

Her head shot up when she heard the OB/GYN's voice. "What? No, Bailey said I'm on call tonight. It's no problem, Dr. Montgomery, really. There's not too much to do anyway, I'll probably just sleep in an on-call room as soon as this surgery is over.

"You're going home, Grey. I got Stevens to cover for you. Go home, take a long, hot bubble bath, and drink some hot tea. Maybe you'll get lucky and you won't catch pneumonia from spending so much time sight-seeing in the rain today," Addison ordered. "And don't argue with me; I'm your boss."

Meredith opened her mouth to protest, but closed it once more when she saw the look on Addison's face. She sighed. "Fine, I'm leaving, I'm leaving."

.xoxo.

He knew what he was doing at the moment was wrong. He shouldn't be sitting at the bar, flirting with a woman who was definitely not Meredith Grey. In fact, her name was Lexie. He didn't ask her last name, and she didn't offer it. There was a surprisingly small number of doctors at Joe's tonight.

He was trying to prove to himself that Meredith wasn't his entire life. Somewhere deep down, he recognized on how many levels this was wrong. Meredith _is _his entire life. Meredith Grey is the love of his life. He knew that, but he was angry. And since he didn't have anything to rationally be angry at, he for some reason chose to be irrationally angry with her.

"So how is it that a handsome doctor like yourself is married with 2.5 kids, a white picket fence, and a dog? Or at least a girlfriend?" asked Lexie, smiling curiously up at him.

"I'm divorced," he admitted, not letting on to the fact that he did indeed have a wonderful girlfriend.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she responded. "And no girlfriend?"

"I'm here, aren't I?"

She looked at the dance floor and grimaced. "You don't want to dance, do you? Please tell me you don't want to dance."

"I don't dance in public," promised the neurosurgeon.

The bells over the door rang every few minutes, signaling people arriving at Emerald City Bar. He paid no attention, he was so drunk right now he didn't care.

"I am completely trashed," he laughed to Lexie, who wasn't quite as far gone as he was.

"Yes, I can see that," she giggled.

"I should get home," he groaned. "I kind of skipped work today, and if I show up late tomorrow morning, my boss will kill me."

"You're not driving home like that, I hope," she said, eyes widening at his inebriated state.

"I'll leave my car here," he told her. "I work across the street, so I'll just call a cab tonight." He stood up and stumbled over his barstool. Lexie grabbed his wrist to keep him from toppling to the floor.

"I think I'll walk you out and wait until you get to the cab, if that's alright with you. I'd like to know you did fall in front of a moving vehicle. I would get sued for negligence if anything happened to you while you were this drunk." He laughed, but didn't respond with words. He allowed her to swing his arm over her shoulder, and wrap her own around his waist.

The trouble came before he could make it to a cab.

As soon as they reached the door to Joe's, the door opened from the outside, and what happened after that was something that would cause Derek to regret getting cold feet about his relationship for weeks to come.

* * *

**You're opinons and thoughts are always appriciated. This is my first Grey's fic that I've actually published, so let me know what you think. I'm not expecting this to be long. Maybe two or three chapters. But it popped into my head as I was watching Time After Time, so I had to write it.**

**Love it, hate it, feel free to flame it!**

**Whitelight72  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**Time After Time**

**_-x-_  
**

_**If you're lost and you look  
Then you will find me  
Time after time  
If you fall, I will catch you  
I'll be waiting  
Time after Time**_

_**-x-**_

_**

* * *

**_

**A/N: Wrote this after seeing Time After Time. Slight spoilers, but mainly a different take on the aftermath. And I realize Lexie wasn't actually brought in before Susan died, but for the sake of my story, she did. The song Broken is by Lifehouse as well.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 2  
Broken**

_I'm falling apart  
I'm barely breathing  
With a broken heart  
That's still beating_

She didn't know what she expected when she entered Emerald City Bar that night. She wasn't going to get drunk. She already had a headache – a sign she was, in fact, getting sick – and she should've just headed home like Addison had instructed. But Alex knew something was going on with her and Derek; he knew something was wrong and she didn't want to have to look at his pitying face when she got home all sad and lonely.

The only thing she was probably going to do was sit at the bar and talk to Joe about her problems, ask him if he'd seen Derek the previous night, and if he told him what was going on. She never made it to Joe, though. As soon as Meredith pulled the door open to the Emerald City Bar, she froze on the spot. There was Derek, Dr. Shepherd, her _boyfriend_, with an arm slung another woman, drunk, laughing, and leaving the bar. Her mind flashed back to the way they had met. This was exactly how they'd met.

As soon as he looked up from his woman to his girlfriend, he froze, and the laughing stopped. The woman glanced up at him curiously.

"Derek?" Her voice was so sweet, so innocent. She had no idea what was about to happen.

"Meredith…"

"Honestly Derek?" Her voice was shaking, as was the rest of her body. "Is this where you've been all day? I've been calling you nonstop for the past 24 hours!"

"Meredith, please, just let me explain…"

"No! What did I do, Derek? What did I do this time? I've been trying, I've really been trying here. I've been putting myself through hell to make myself better here, so you avoid me for two days and this is where I finally find you?! Stumbling out of Joe's, drunk off your ass, about to go screw someone you just met. Jesus, Derek, when did you turn into me!?"

"Meredith, just listen..."

"No!" All of a sudden, there were tears in her eyes, as if she was suddenly realizing what was happening. "Go home, Derek. I can't deal with this tonight."

"I'll drive you home, Grey," a new voice offered. Lexie's head shot up and glanced at the speaker, then when she noticed who he was speaking to, she stared at Meredith in dismay.

"Thanks Alex," she offered weakly.

"You're Meredith Grey?" Lexie choked.

Meredith shrugged. "Let me guess, you've heard of my mother? I don't care, leave me alone."

And then they were gone, Alex occasionally looking back to shoot glares at Derek. As soon as they were out of the bar, Lexie slapped Derek on the shoulder. He jumped back, stumbled a bit, and then looked at her in shock.

"What the hell was that for?"

"Not only do you have a girlfriend, when you told me you didn't, you're girlfriend is Meredith Grey!" she shouted at him.

He gave her a strange look. "Do you know Meredith?"

But Lexie wasn't paying him any more attention. Instead she was pacing in circles, ranting to herself. "Now she's going to hate me. She doesn't even know who I am, and she's going to hate me!"

"Look, Meredith hates me, not you. She's not the type to hold grudges," Derek tried, attempting to calm her down.

"Of course she's going to hate me! Who could blame her? I'd hate someone too if they were trying to pick up my drunk-out-of-his-mind boyfriend. I don't really have a boyfriend, obviously, but that's not the point."

"Well, then would you mind telling me what your point is, then?" Derek said loudly, cutting her off.

"The point is, my sister is going to hate me before I can get the chance to know her!" she shouted at him.

Derek, drunk, and slow on the uptake, furrowed his brows. "Who is your sister?"

She smacked him on the shoulder again. "Meredith Grey!"

He rolled his eyes slightly. "I think you're confused, Lexie. I've known Meredith for a long time, and I've met her father, and her mother, and her step-mother, and her half-sister, and oh, shit, you're Lexie Grey!" Her eyes widened. "You're a med student at Harvard! What are you doing in Seattle?"

"How do you know I'm a med student at Harvard?" she inquired suspiciously.

"Hello, I'm dating your half-sister. I went to dinner with her once, with her dad and Susan. And Molly was at Seattle-Grace for a while because of complications with her baby. Your parents talk about you a lot. Hmm, you know, you actually kind of remind me of Meredith."

"Your girlfriend?" she questioned.

"Mmhmm."

"The one that was just here?"

"Yep," he said proudly. Drunken idiot.

"That girl who just left with someone else because her boyfriend was leaving a bar with another woman?"

He nodded once more, and for a split second, Lexie thought she might have to spell it out for him. But then his eyes widened and he looked frantic. "Shit! Shit! Shit! SHIT!"

"That's a much more reasonable reaction," she commented. He ran his hands through his hair, messing it up so that it was standing in every direction.

"I need to go talk to her."

"Tonight? It can't wait till morning, when you're, oh, I don't know, sober?"

"No, no it can't. Because Meredith has this thing where she runs away and avoids everything. And if I let her spend a night stewing over this, it'll take her months to trust me again." He ran his hands over his face. "God damn it, and we were so close to getting it right this time! God damn you, Richard! I need to go over to her house."

"Calm down, buddy. You're in no state to drive. I'll take you." He looked like he was going to protest. "I should introduce myself, and then apologize to her."

"I-," he sighed. "Alright, that sounds fair. Just, let me talk to her first, please. I'm sure you're a great person and all Lexie, but I love this woman more than I ever thought possible, and I've screwed up _so_ many times this year. I need to make sure things are right between us."

Lexie nodded. "Sure, I understand. All I want is the chance to know my sister."

.xoxo.

"Give me your keys," Alex stated, leaving no room for argument. When Meredith looked like she were going to argue, he stopped walking and tugged on her arm to motion for her to stop as well. "Meredith, I don't know what just happened, but you're extremely upset, you're crying, and you're in no condition to drive. Please don't fight me on this, just give me the keys."

She nodded, and without argument, grabbed the keys off her belt loop and handed them to him. "I'm parked over at the hospital." They walked in silence to her car, but as soon as they pulled out of the hospital parking lot, Alex spoke up.

"So do you want to explain what just happened in there?"

After a long pause, Meredith spoke. "Derek never came home last night. And I know that my house isn't technically home to him, because he hasn't technically moved in, but we've spent every night together for a long, long while, ya know?" Alex nodded. "And he didn't come home. So I called him – God, I called him so many times today. I figured he was on call last night, but so was Izzie, and when she got in this morning, she said Derek had left around the same time I had yesterday. And he didn't show up at work at all today."

"That's really not like him," Alex commented. "Did you speak to the chief?"

She nodded. "And he hadn't called the chief to let him know he wouldn't be in. But I was getting really worried, you know. It seemed like he was mad at me. He was ignoring all my calls. So after a day of worrying what I did wrong, and, God help me, literally crying in the arms of his ex-wife, when I still couldn't get a hold of him, I went to Joe's like we always do. And as I'm walking into Joe's, Derek's walking out with his arm slung around some woman, laughing his ass off, drunker than I've ever seen him, and they were leaving together."

To say Alex was furious would be an understatement. "I'm sure it's not what you're thinking, Grey. There's no way Shepherd would cheat on you."

"What else could have been happening, Alex?" she asked, desperately hoping he could have a simple, innocent explanation for why her boyfriend was leaving with another woman.

He shook his head. "You know, this is really unfortunate."

She laughed hard once at his tone. "What is?"

"Well, on the off chance that Derek's been cheating on you, or was about to, I'm going to have to kick his ass. And I mean, I'm a surgeon. I'm going to have to hurt my hands, and then the chief is going to be mad at me for hurting, or possibly killing, his world class neurosurgeon. It's just going to be all around badness."

That got a true laugh out of Meredith. He said it so matter-of-factly, like he was sure he was going to do it, and nothing was going to stop him. "I mean it, Grey. We're family. You and I get each other. You're like a sister to me, and I'm sure as hell going to be the hard ass older brother that kicks your boyfriend's ass if he was cheating on you, even if he is my boss."

"I think I kind of love you, Alex," she sighed. Her eyes closed and she rested her head against the window. "I don't know what I did wrong, Alex."

"Nothing warrants _that_, Meredith."

The ride home was short, and the only noise from then on out was the rain pattering against the windshield. Alex parked the car and they grabbed their things before hurriedly getting out of the car and slamming the doors, then ran as fast as they could into the house.

"And we're still drenched," she complained, picking at the shirt that was now sticking to her body.

"Yeah, tell me about it," replied Alex. He angled his head towards her and shook, very much in the same fashion as a wet dog would. Meredith groaned as she covered her face to block the onslaught of water.

"Alex!" she groaned. "Where is everyone, anyway?" For quite a while now, Cristina had been crashing on the couch.

"Izzie is upstairs sleeping. Yang is on-call tonight, as is O'Malley."

"I'm going to go change into some dry clothes," she called behind her as she started up the stairs.

Almost as soon as Alex heard the bedroom door shut, he glanced out the front door and saw two people running through the rain to the front door. When he saw who it was, he glared at the in disbelief. He pulled open the door and the hurried inside.

"You actually have the nerve to come here after what you pulled tonight?" he hissed. "And you bring your new girlfriend with you!"

"Karev, calm down," Derek said, holding his hands out in defense. "I promise you it's not what you think."

"I'm not going to believe a word you say. After everything you've put her through; after everything she's done for you! – I can't believe you would sink this low!"

"Please, Karev, I can explain," Derek begged. "But I need to speak to Meredith. Where is she?"

"You're nuts if you think I'm letting you hurt her again!"

"Alex, it's fine," Meredith said softly from the top of the stairs. "He's nothing if not persistent. I may as well hear him out."

* * *

**The Meredith/Derek confrontation will finally arrive next chapter. Except I'm not very sure how it's going to happen, so it may be a while. Summer school and hot, humid weather are kicking my ass. **

**Reviews would be wonderful, as well as ideas for next chapter.**

**Whitelight72  
**


End file.
